1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to a machine tool, particularly to a cutting machine for processing flat stock, comprising a work table having a processing surface, which can preferably be subjected to a vacuum, and a tool carriage, which is movable along the processing surface, wherein a feeder is associated with the work table at one end thereof.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Such machine tools serve mainly to cut blanks out of strip material, such as prepregs, or to surface-finish flat workpieces etc. in an operation in which the flat stock to be processed is delivered by the feeder to the processing surface of the work table and by suitable holding-down members or preferably by the application of a vacuum is held down on the processing surface during the processing. After the processing the blanks or other workpieces must be removed to clear the processing surface for receiving additional flat stock. That operation will be rather time-consuming if the usual simple work tables are used, on which the processing surface corresponds to the cavity length or to the workpiece portion to be processed because additional flat stock cannot be applied before the processed workpieces and the waste have been removed from the processing surface. Other work tables, called conveyor tables, have been proposed, which comprise conveyor belts, which constitute the processing surface so that the flat stock can be deposited on the conveyor belt in a receiving region, which precedes the processing surface, and the conveyor belt is intermittently operated to move the stock to a processing region and subsequently to a delivery region so that the time is desirably utilized. But a machine tool for such an operation, in which stock can be deposited, processed and removed at the same time, requires a large space and a high structural expenditure because the machine table must have three times the size of the processing surface area.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,514,246 discloses cutting plants comprising two juxtaposed work tables so that the stock can be processed on one of the tables and stock can be removed from and deposited on the other table at the same time. Such plants are subject to the same remarks as the conveyor tables because the sequence of operations can be performed within a shorter time but the expenditure is increased by the provision of two fully equipped work tables and of feeders and tool means which reciprocate between the two tables.